15/10/2026
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA - AN APPROACHABLE SAINT
Today is the feast day of Saint Teresa of Ávila… one of my favourite saints! She was a 16th century Spanish mystic and reformer and she stands out amongst this holy crowd for her life, her writings, and her lasting legacy in Christian history. Stories of famous Christian saints are often presented in idealized fashion - surely to emphasize their holiness - but the downside is that the saints become too holy and too perfect, and they stop being relatable. Perhaps you have encountered Teresa in this manner: that she and one of her brothers had run away from home as children in the hope of being martyred (how bizarre!); and that she was a pious nun who reformed the Carmelite Order to which she belonged. She sounds very holy indeed, doesn’t she?
However, she was also a truly remarkable woman in so many other ways. Fortunately for us Teresa wrote a lot - which was unusual for a woman of her day. With a fair amount of accuracy, therefore, we can recount her biography, her motivations, and her faith. She was born Teresa de Ahumada y Cepeda in the city of Ávila in the old Spanish kingdom of Castile in 1515. She was the fifth of twelve children in her family. Her two eldest siblings were from her father’s first marriage, and she was from his second. Teresa’s mother died at the age of thirty-three after the birth of her tenth child. Most of Teresa’s brothers left home and headed to the Americas to make their fortunes, since this was also the era of Spanish exploration and colonization. Teresa seemed an unlikely candidate for the holy life, despite that famous childhood attempt at martyrdom.
As a young woman, Teresa was apparently difficult. She loved romance novels and fashion. One can look at her early life and see that perhaps she was just a little too beautiful, rich, and adventurous for sixteenth century Spanish society. Exasperated, her father sent her off to an Augustinian convent when she was fifteen. While she had little desire to become a nun, she did enjoy her time there, and later entered the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation in Ávila against her father’s wishes in November of 1536, at the age of twenty. Life at the convent likely provided her with more freedom than had she decided to marry. The Incarnation was a wealthy convent that was not strictly cloistered, and Teresa was able to come and go, visiting friends and family, thus able to maintain her social life even after becoming a nun. For a Spanish woman in the sixteenth century, this was about as much freedom as one could hope for.
She spent nearly two decades in lukewarm religiosity. In her autobiography, she writes about wanting a deeper spiritual life, but she struggled for a variety of reasons. However, in 1555 she had a radical conversion experience which changed her life. She was about to walk into the convent’s chapel when she saw a statue of Christ that had been set aside for an upcoming celebration. The statue depicted Christ being scourged at the pillar, and the sight of it shook her to the “root of her being” and stirred a deep devotion in her. She was never the same again! From this point forward, Teresa’s story became intertwined with her many mystical experiences, many of which she would describe in her writings. All this activity brought Teresa a good deal of fame! But it also brought concerns from the Inquisition, which was very active during Teresa’s life. Teresa wrote her first book, her autobiography, because various clerical authorities wanted to examine her prayer life, her theology, and her mystical experiences. Despite this suspicion however, the church deemed her theology orthodox, and her mystical experiences legitimate. Concerned about what others would do with her writings though, the Inquisition tried to keep the autobiography from the public. Eventually the book was widely read and has since become a classic. She also wrote The Way of Perfection and Interior Castle, both of which are important contributions to Spanish Renaissance literature.
Teresa was not just a mystic; she made her mark as a religious reformer as well. She believed God was calling her to return the Carmelite Order back to its original strictness, which included a return to poverty, and a commitment to silent prayer. The nuns were to be discalced, which means wearing sandals instead of shoes to show a commitment to poverty. One other important aspect of her reforms was to accept women of all social classes. Dowries, which often kept pious but poor women from entering the religious life, were welcomed, but not required, and a faithful woman seeking a monastic life would not be turned away due to lack of funds. Teresa opened the Convent of St. Joseph in 1562, and she would spend the rest of her life establishing fourteen new Discalced Carmelite Convents and two monastic houses for men. After a full life, Teresa died at the age of sixty-seven on 15th October 1582.
She was canonized in 1622 and was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970. However, it is not just her impressive credentials that have made a lasting impression in Christian history. In fact, her autobiography (still in print today) is one of the most enjoyable pieces of mystical literature available. She comes across as funny, smart, and warm. The book feels intimate - like you are getting prayer advice from a friend who just happens to be a canonized saint. Her context may be different, and her mysticism may seem strange to the modern reader, but her honest recounting of struggles with prayer, authority, and her relationship with God is profoundly relatable.
“Let nothing disturb you,” she wrote in her autobiography. “Let nothing make you afraid. All things are passing. God alone never changes. Patience gains all things. If you have God, you will want for nothing. God alone suffices.” The hymn writer Bernadette Farrell has written a lovely song based on these words, and you can find it by clicking on this link: https://youtu.be/QEKdT4o_XHs
